Federal Reserve policymaker says US can withstand high oil prices

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (AFP) - Federal Reserve governor Ben Bernanke said Monday the US economy can withstand high oil prices, which topped 50 dollars a barrel last week for the first time.
Oil prices need not be a drag, he told reporters after addressing bankers in Washington.
"It is the difference between rising prices and high prices. The economy can accommodate prices at the current level," said Bernanke, who is voting member of the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee.
Bernanke said he hoped oil prices would decline gradually.
The oil price in New York was expected to drop to 40 dollars a barrel by the end of this year and 35 dollars at the end of 2005, according to a panel of analysts at the National Association of Business Economists.
Finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven industrialized economies Friday said oil prices were a risk to an otherwise strong global economy.